Recruitment
If you are interested in finding government communications jobs in NSW, you need to target the right agencies. Here’s a good place to start…
Everything the public service does is governed by strict protocols and guidelines, including the way that it recruits for government communications jobs. For comms jobs seekers interested in finding a public service position one of the best places to start is to register with one of the authorised recruitment agencies used by the NSW government HR people for comms jobs.
Government communications jobs – like many public service positions – are sought after. They are well paid, the working environments are generally comfortable, they have reasonable job security and offer a real work life balance. People want to work in government, so targeting the right agencis can be a good way to get your head start in finding your next government communications job before the competition gets it first.
For government communications job in New South Wales, the list of relevant recruitment agencies is short. The following companies are preferred recruitment agencies for the NSW Government dealing with recruitment of areas of expertise which (roughly) incorporate communications:
As is often the case with recruitment companies, none of these agencies specifically list communications or public relations categories. But they do have loosely relevant fields and they are certainly the agencies that NSW government recruiters use, particularly for short-term contracts which are not advertised on the larger job boards like Seek or Mycareer.
It is worth sending through your CV to each of these agencies (and follow up with them if you don’t hear back from them) and checking their websites regularly for listings.
Like with all recruitment companies it is not just about whether they have the right jobs on their books, it is also about whether you are on their radar. Recruiters sell job placements. They are dependent on successful placements and on turnover. As a result, they are busy filling one position while working on getting the next one in place. And they deal in volume. So, if you are not on their radar then it won’t make a difference that you may be the perfect person for the job.
Marjorie Solomon is the founder and editor of Talking Comms Jobs. She has 15 years communications experience and is probably still a job seeker.
Your CV can take on a whole extra dimension – and can make things easier and more impressive for recruiters – if you add hyperlinks to show examples of your work experience…
Back in 2009 I volunteered to help promote a Twestival in Jerusalem, where I was living at the time. Due to the social-media-cutting-edge-communications nature of the event it was agreed that we would use all the latest promotional innovations, which at the time included a social media release.
Now, at first I was intimidated by this concept, but for the purposes of promoting the event, it turned out to be little more than a media release with hyperlinks, including links to the Twitter ID of all the volunteers, sponsors and other notables, as well as a few other relevant social media links. (Social media releases often also contain embedded videos or such like, but we didn’t have any of that sort of material to hand.)
This work got me thinking that my CV should really be more interactive, and so, over-time, I have worked to ensure that it is more like an eCV than a straight forward paper version.
This conclusion has since been reinforced by discussions with recruiters and from reading CV and application requirements for more online-focused jobs.
As one recruiter explained recently, if you make a claim about something on your CV, you need to be able to back it up with examples via links from the page. These links could mean the difference between you making it to interview stage or not.
So how do we go about making our CV into an eCV?
It is simple enough and you have probably already worked it out (if you don’t already have it in place). But in case you need a little bit of guidance…
- Insert hyperlinks for all the companies where you have worked (going back to real basics, this means that in MS Word, you highlight the area you want to create a link for, click on ‘Insert’ and then ‘Hyperlink” and then add the URL for the company)
- Link as many projects/achievements etc to online examples as you can. For example, if you have media releases, publications or websites, link them in to where you have listed them.
- Make sure all your social media IDs are included with hyperlinks.
This is an ongoing process. Only a couple of days ago I visited my CV to update the hyperlinks and make sure everything that could be linked was linked. I am already thinking of a few more things I need to go back to update.
Hope this helps!
Marjorie Solomon is the founder and editor of Talking Comms Jobs. She has 15 years communications experience and is probably still a job seeker.
I was recently pleased to discover an email in my inbox from a recruiter who had found me online and wanted to chat about a vacancy he was looking to fill. It is always nice to be head-hunted (conceptually speaking, of course), but I was also excited because I was under the impression that the contact had been made as a result of my new Linkedin summary, the subject of a previous TCJ post.
But no, I was all wrong: my recruiter had not found me via Linkedin, but via the similarly-named, Australian recruitment site, LinkMe. To be completely frank, I had no idea what he, the recruiter, was talking about at first so just kept assuming he was talking about Linkedin until he eventually took a moment to spell it out for me (…the ignominy of belated comprehension!).
Anyway, it turns out that I had registered with LinkMe some months before when I had first decided it was time to look for a job and had done so (if I remember correctly) with a vague idea that the site was somehow connected to Linkedin. I forgot about it until the recruiter’s email arrived in my inbox and all was, eventually, revealed.
Now, the recruiter and I met, had a great interview and both walked away feeling that the job was not for me and I was not for it – which happens. However, there were a number of other interesting things that came out of that meeting, some of which I may write about soon, but most relevant to this post is the fact that this recruiter actively uses LinkMe as a way of finding candidates.
He cited a number reasons for this approach including:
- The higher quality of applicants on LinkMe, in particular that they tend to be more tech and social media savvy.
- The shorter timeframes for filling vacancies.
- Avoiding the deluge of irrelevant applications that comes with advertising on one of the big job listing sites like Seek or MyCareer.
The last point is a recurring theme that I hope to discuss more at length soon, but the basic principle seems to be that serious, smart recruiters tend to avoid Seek, MyCareer and their like and try to hone in on quality candidates – and avoid the white noise – via:
1. Linkedin (let’s discuss recruiting and jobs on Linkedin more another time)
2. LinkMe
So, my advice for today would be, for those who have not already done so, take a moment (it should take no more than half an hour) to register and fill in your profile on LinkMe. And who knows, maybe you too will get one of those emails in your inbox – perhaps even one where you suit the job and the job suits you…
Good luck!
Marjorie Solomon is the founder and editor of Talking Comms Jobs. She has 15 years communications experience and is probably still a job seeker.
I have just added a summary to my linkedin profile. I first noticed that some of my Linkedin connections had them on their profile pages perhaps a year back but at the time I was not in the jobs market and so simply I dismissed the concept as border-line narcissistic and more social media detritus. I have since – slowly – come round.
As with all things social media, something that starts out seeming unnecessary and self-indulgent soon becomes cutting edge and then evolves into a virtual mainstream essential. I expect that Linkedin summaries are increasingly an example of this trend – especially for job seekers and those with ambitions to climb career ladders and build networks.
So I joined the fray. Working out how to write it wasn’t easy. It’s never simple – even for comms people - when the product you are promoting is yourself.
I looked around online for advice and got a range of responses. The first two tips I saw that resonated were by Victoria Ipri, CEO of Modello Media, in an article on this topic. She provided the following useful advice (among other things) :
- Always write your summary in first person
- Always include your contact information
I also found the Essay Expert’s discussion on this topic very useful because it provided an example of structure and style.
Perhaps one of the big things which I have come to appreciate is that this is not simply an opportunity to make an ‘elevator pitch’ for yourself (an idea which makes me cringe), but more that it provides a space in which you can to try to capture who you are as a character and a professional. If I look at it this way, it suddenly adds a valuable dimension to the process of self-representation in the job market.
But how important is it for recruiters? And more importantly for us, what difference does it make to for communications job candidates? I would love to hear your thoughts.
Marjorie Solomon is the founder and editor of Talking Comms Jobs. She has 15 years communications experience and is probably still a job seeker.
This week Mashable ran a story about strange interview questions based on survey results compiled by US-based jobs site Glassdoor. Here’s a sample of the questions:
“How many people are using Facebook in San Francisco at 2:30 p.m. on a Friday?” — Asked at Google, Vendor Relations Manager candidate
“If Germans were the tallest people in the world, how would you prove it?” — Asked at Hewlett-Packard, Product Marketing Manager candidate
“How would you cure world hunger?” — Asked at Amazon.com, Software Developer candidate
Some of these questions are so absurd that if I had been facing them it would have taken a great deal for me not to want to call an interview quits immediately and run, fearing that I was being interviewed by either a bunch of pretentious fools or lunatics. (I mean, really, are these the sort of people you want to work for?)
Obviously, these companies are considered to be employers of choice and most potential candidates would probably expect their interviewing process to be a little out of the ordinary. Fortunately, most employers don’t have such reputations for extraordinariness to uphold and, in most instances, our interview experiences are a little more reliable and run-of-the-mill.
But we still need to be as prepared and ready as we can be for the experience. If we can assume that we won’t have to field questions like those above, what sort of questions should we expect?
Glassdoor has a list of 50 common interview questions that are worth glancing at in advance of an interview. It also gives you a chance to think about who you are professionally and what you are expecting to bring to the job, as well as what you are hoping to get from the company and the position.
I quite enjoy interviews and have had a reasonable strike rate over the years. My approach tends to be:
- Research the company thoroughly; read through its website; Google any news or chat about the company. And, of course, we are talking about jobs in communications, so research the big issues affecting it, its business and its reputation.
- Keep in sight who you are and what you have done to get to this moment; refresh your familiarity with your CV, remember what experience you have… your achievements, your skills, what things you would do differently etc. I know it seems crazy that you might have to swot up on your own professional history, but if you are anything like me, sometimes it’s easy to forget the details.
- Re-read the job ad and your application letter.
- Know your own story. Determine the image you want to project – as a professional persona and in terms of your career trajectory. Be prepared for questions about your plans for the future (although I must admit I have never had to field such a question).
- Be prepared to engage. You may well be asked if you have any questions: have a number that demonstrate your understanding of the company, its issues and perhaps how well you know your job.
It is also extremely important is to be relaxed, yourself and as charming and/or amusing as the occasion and your nerves will allow (I know this is often easier said than done). I find a shared moment of amusement goes a long way towards scoring a second interview or a job offer.
I welcome any thoughts you may have.
Best of luck!
Marjorie Solomon is the founder and editor of Talking Comms Jobs. She has 15 years communications experience and is probably still a job seeker.
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